Long Island Bahamas

Well , we made it to Salt Pond, Thompson Bay Long Island on January 20th which was a Tuesday.  We had gotten the news via “Bahamas Chatter” that one of our favorite places, Long Island Breeze, had closed for reorganization.  We really hope that they reopen as Mike & Jackie, the front end owners are just wonderful folks.  We hear there is a 3rd partner but who knows…..  When we first went in several years ago I was wearing one of my Hampshire Rose polo shirts.  Went to the bar to get a Kalik for us and Mike looked at me & asked “Where in Hampshire are you from?”  When I spoke with my American accent – he was surprised!  I explained that it was my husband who was from Hampshire, Portsmouth in particular and the friendship between the 3 of us started.  Out of respect for their privacy we have not stopped by although we did see Jackie on the porch on the phone one day.

We had taken the dink to the Government Dock to take some trash, walked to the Ministry of Tourism office to see Samantha there & get a new tourist booklet.  We walked across the street to Harding’s Grocery and  the door was open but the lights were off… ok, no surprise, the power is often out, then we noticed that the shelves were just about bare!  They had closed as of 1/1/2015!  The older gentleman who we have had many long conversations with was there as was his daughter who also worked there.  Another less than pleasant surprise. 

Now there is only 1 grocery & 1 restaurant in Salt Pond proper!  But wait……..

Long Island Breeze used to do a Cruiser Net in the mornings with weather & info but now one of the winter residents, Penny from Fairhaven, has kept up this wonderful service to the boaters!  It was on this net that we learned that on Wednesday 1/21/15 there would be a dinner at Club Washington up the road in Wymess.  Now that is really too far to walk but the winter residents had organized a carpool of sorts to ferry all of we boaters!  It was a great time!  We saw Darien, the owner the next morning & he said they served between 55 & 60 dinners!  You had your choice of fish, chicken or ribs with 2 sides for $15.00 and it was great!  Darien’s mom did the cooking in a kitchen about the size of our cockpit.  Amazing!  And lets just say that since rum is cheaper than soda the drinks tend to be strong.  I actually had to ask for more diet Coke!  This has now become somewhat of a Wednesday night activity here in Thompson Bay.

The restaurant that is in Salt Pond proper is called Sou’ Side Restaurant & Bar and is owned by Tyrone.  It has been around for a few years & Rob & I have always enjoyed it.  We met some Canadian cruisers, Al & Susan and one day Al come by in his dink and asked if we wanted to see the local cave near Sou’ Side.  Rob said no but I decided to be adventurous and later that afternoon Al & Susan picked me up & off we went.  I took a lantern & a flashlight but the one thing I did not really think about was bats!  We walked down a path (complete w/snake) to the cave which was fairly easy to enter.  However, once the bats started flying around Susan & I elected to stay at the well lit end of the cave.  I had forgotten the camera but I do not think I’ll go back for a photo op!   

There is a liquor store that also sells stamps as the “Post Office” is open for 3 hours on Wednesdays as that is when the mailboat comes.  Here in Salt Pond (that is the name, be true!) the mail really still comes by boat!  All in all, we still like Salt Pond & Sou’ Side is doing a Happy Hour for the Superbowl tomorrow night and if the strong winds hold off we will go – at least till half time.

We have had a couple of get togethers on the beach here that have been great.  We do feel badly about one thing.  When Long Island Breeze closed, they moved their floating dinghy dock and since the only grocery is about a mile north of there all of the boater have been using another dock.  Now this dock IS a private dock but the owner has graciously allowed the visitors to use it & he does not lock his gate.  All services, restaurants, grocery, auto rental are near his dock.  Local fishing boats tie up there as well.  This man has asked that the boaters NOT leave their trash in the can at his dock as he must pay to have it hauled away.  There ARE trash bins at the Government Dock that are there for the boaters but man y are filling his can.  There is also a ladder & cleats at the Government Dock but some of our fellow cruisers are just too damn lazy to dink down to the other dock.  Now we only have a 6hp outboard on our dink & we do it.  If people are not careful, Basel will just lock it up and we will all have to walk a mile each way for groceries!  Rob spoke with Penny (net control) at the farmers market this morning & she asked that he make an announcement in the morning.

On to better news… last week we went to the other end of the anchorage, took our trash and went to Long Island Petroleum for dink gas.  There is a big white building that says “Harding’s Seafood” that we have never seen open.   Well on they way back to the dink someone was there!  We ended up getting 5lbs of lobster for $55.00!  Some of these tails were huge!

                                                                                                                      Vinaigrette Sauce for Lobster

 

                                                                              1 Cup Mayonnaise                                           ¼ Cup Cilantro – fresh                                         3 Tbls Red wine vinegar                          2 Tbls lime juice

                                                                              2 Tbls Dijon Mustard                                       2 Tbls Chili Garlic Sauce                                      2 cloves minced garlic                              2 teas sugar

                                                                                                                       Mix well & refrigerate. Better if made the day before!

Here is a sauce that we use.  This is good!  Do not use the Olive Oil Mayo as it doesn’t work as well.  It may be thinned with Olive Oil but we prefer it without.  It is also good for fish & chicken too.  You may also adjust the spice level by adjusting the amount of Chili Garlic Sauce.  Let me know what you think.

Earlier I mentioned a Farmers Market.  Yes, one is held each Saturday from 9-12.  Unfortunately there was some flooding here last spring and the veggies are just now coming back.  The market for the last 2 Saturday’s has been short on produce and long and crafts, jams & straw work.  One thing is certain, it is a great social time!

Enough for now, no new pics.  We may leave here Monday for George Town & free water or pay for water here & head down the west side of the island.  I really would like to collect some salt from one of the salt ponds at low tide!  Will keep you posted!

Holly

Jr. Junkanoo, Hermitage & on to Salt Pond

No matter how hard I try to keep up the blog it seems that we are too busy having fun to sit down and do it! 

We went up to New Bight for the Junior Junkanoo on Saturday the 17th of January and what fun it was!  There were a few other cruising boats, some winter residents and even a van full from Stella Maris and Fernandez Bay Resorts!  This is a competition between the schools and communities on the island that is restricted to only those of school age.

As you can see, these kids were really into it!   The next day we went up to The Hermitage which was the retirement home of Father Jerome.   He was trained as an architect in the 1600’s and was also a Catholic Priest.  At some point he switched to Anglican but he was responsible for building many, many churches in the Bahamas.  Several on Eleuthera, Cat as well as on Long Island.  At Clarence Town on Long Island there are two churches designed by Father Jerome that are almost across the street from one another.

He built The Hermitage as his retirement dwelling on land that was given to him by the Bahamian government.  Remember that this was in the mid 1600’s and people were much smaller than today!

         The Gates                 Highest Point in the Bahamas                                                   Stations of the cross – some are missing as they are now gone.

 

Wow. this place is so awe inspiring!  This was all done by hand in the 1600’s!

We had walked up there with our new friends Terry & Jeanette from Aquilla. As we were walking up to The Hermitage and admiring the local gardens a man came out of the bush.  He asked if we would like to see his “field” so off we went!  I wish I had taken the camera out as it is amazing how much produce they can get from an area full of rock!  There were stands of tomatoes, cabbages, purple cabbages, Bahamian sweet potato, which is a white flesh but different than the white sweet potato from the Easter Shore of VA.

Once again there was a front coming with strong winds so we decided to go back to Smith Bay.  Now when we had been in Smith Bay earlier the “Harbormaster” said that after the mailboat came on Thursday the 15th of January there would not be another till the next Thursday.  When the 15th came around we left & went fishing on the big boat while he docked & unloaded.

We got a dinner-fish and came back while he finished.  He was bow out so we figured he would just go straight out of the harbor.  Well, he missed the inlet and promptly ran aground!  We had been trying to raise him on the VHF with no response.  Finally when he was so close we yelled over and they told us they had NO working radio!  He then turned and we really thought he was going to hit Aquilla!  Little did we know……

The man in charge had said no other supply boats so imagine our surprise when one comes in Sunday night after we were settled!  Below are photos from our chartplotter.  Notice how close he is….  That is 110ft away from us which is nothing!  Aquilla was there too so there was no room to move.  Ahhh, life on a boat!

We still needed to get a new bracket built for our engine drive refrigeration (damn vibrations) so we had decided to leave for Long Island the next morning.  It was still blowing pretty good and it was a bit rough getting to the south end of Cat Island at Hawks Nest and during this time Jeanette on Aquilla decided that she was a tad too uncomfortable so off to Hawks Nest they went.  As it turned out Terry had a stuffing box problem so it was best that they did stop. 

See, that is part of cruising.  You meet new friends only to part company but you never know when you will meet again.  We still have very good friends that we met our very first year in 2002!

 

We had a great sail – yes SAIL! over to Long Island but were quite disappointed to have lost (for the 2nd time) the entire rig from our new fishing pole!!  Rob finally said “Enough is enough!” and put heavier test line on it.  We lost the whole rig from the new one then got a little schooly dolphin (mahi) right to the boat when he spit the hook so no fish that night.  Calabash was very rolly and we did not sleep well and were off to the community of Slat Pond early the next day.

 

More on that next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where were we??

We have had to resurrect our old computer for many reasons too lengthy to go into here.   Lets get right to the good stuff! 

For the last few years we have been on Eleuthera for the Junkanoo Competition.  The settlements of Tarpum Bay, Governor's Harbour, Hatchet Bay and Rock Sound each go all out for bragging rights for the following year. Two years ago it was in Tarpum Bay, last year in Rock Sound and this past Christmas it was in Hatchet Bay.  We have always enjoyed Hatchet, especially the stone crabs but this year was very different.  The government put in some moorings a few years back.  Since no one maintains them they are a bit suspect but they are also free.  Last year someone was going boat to boat trying to collect $15.00 a night but that stopped in very short order and prior to our arrival there.  We decided to pick up a mooring as the weather was to be settled and it would make the dink ride back to the boat easier in the dark. 

Imagine our surprise when in the afternoon of the 23rd of December Francis, the owner of the Front Porch Restaurant came up in a derelict sailboat (no mast) and gave us a piece of paper saying that starting the day of the 24th the “town of Hatchet Bay” would start charging $20.00 a night for the mooring balls due to “the imminent development” of Hatchet Bay!  We asked him when they were last inspected & he informed us that the maintenance of the balls was up to the boater who used them!  Merry Christmas!  We get to pay $20.00 a night for a ball that we are expected to maintain!  NOT!  We promptly dropped the mooring the next morning and dropped the hook away from town.  To top it off, the stone crab fishermen were no were to be found.  The huge pot for cooking the claws was no longer on Double Eagle, the small boat went out sporadically and never came back with more than 1 or 2 baskets of claws & John, the boss man, was off island in Nassau.  We discussed it and it seems that there is no longer any reason to spend much time in Hatchet Bay.  What is odd is that last year Francis (the same man) was adamant that the town should not charge for these moorings.  Oh well.

 

One of the boats –Caper- suggested that we have a Christmas pot luck supper at the newer dinghy dock in the afternoon before the Junkanoo festivities that night

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As you can see it was quite a spread.  Rob made ribs, I made Bahamian Mac & Cheese, there was another mac, 2 pasta salads and all sorts of other goodies!  We all went back to our boats to siesta AND AGAIN THE JUNKANOO STARTED ON TIME!!  The route was shorter than in years past and it did not seem quite so loud but it was wonderful all the same!

As in years past the participants made 2 passes but also as in years past we only stayed for 1!  It was still a wonderful evening!  We also decorated the boat as we usually do but we had some help this year from a dock mate at Cobb’s Marina.. thanks Laura!

We stopped in Alabaster Bay where we walked across island to the Atlantic side where there is an old missile tracking (US) station. We found some great beach treasures and of course took the long way in getting there.  After a few days on the boat it does feel good to get out and walk! 

We met a family who had rented CocoDiMoma (a resort that is closed, but that is another story) for the week.  The whole resort!  It was the father & mother, their adult kids (3) and their families.  Wonder what that would cost??  Don’t hold your breath kids!    We went on to another favorite spot, Governors Harbour, then on to Ten Bay, the birthplace of sand dollars or so it seems, then on to Rock Sound where we caught up with Bobby & Francie coming from the north and Preston & Sherry coming from the south.  We had a party on the beach and lets just say that a fine time was had by all! 

The 6th on January had us moving on to Little San Salvador, also known as Half Moon Cay as it is now owned by Holland America Line and boasts an “authentic “ Bahamian Village that closes up tight as soon as the last visitor has left!   The anchorage there tends to be very rolly to say the least so 1 night was all we stayed.  The following morning we were off to Cat Island and Orange Creek.  We have a saying that you aren’t going to catch fish unless you have some lines in the water so drop a couple of lures we did.  We had come back into the shallow water (less than 100 ft.) and were thinking of bringing in the lines when something hit the rod on my side of the boat.  I reeled it in but there was nothing there except the teeth marks!  About that time something hit the other rod. 

Now you must understand that we do not measure fish by length or pounds, we measure them as “dinner fish”.  This particular Crevelle Jack was an 8 dinner fish.  That means he was 8 dinner servings after being filleted.  We had our friends Terry & Jeanette over for a dinner of “Potato Fish w/Sauce and a Caesar Salad with Rob’s wonderful homemade dressing.

Take a firm meat fish fillet and coat one side with course mustard – I use Grey Poupon Country Dijon. Grate a washed potato leaving the skin on and press grated potato onto the mustard coated side of the fish. Warm olive oil in a frying pan and cook the fish mustard/potato side UP until partially cooked. Carefully turn fish and cook until the potato side is done & crispy brown. Delicious!

Sauce

2 Tbls Lemon (lime) juice ; ¼ Cup Honey;¼ cup Soy Sauce ;2 Tbls powered Ginger;½ Tbls Garlic Powder ;Up to ¼ cup Olive Oil;Mix Lemon juice & honey. Add other ingredients. I use very little oil.  Frankly, I use no oil and have discovered that if you use the ginger in a tube from the produce section it makes a world of difference!

 

Should any of you try this recipe please let me know what you think!  As a sidebar….. while I was writing this I had to stop as Rob had a fish on!  I went topside & even though he had the drag set the line was screaming out!  I got a glove & tried to stop it but about that time the fish broke the line.  Well, it was probably too big to allow in our cockpit anyway.    Next I was coming to finish this & what I thought may have been some weed on the line turned out to be another fish! Just at the boat he spit the hook.  No fish for dinner tonight.

From Orange Creek we went down to Bennett's Harbour and dropped anchor off Pompey Rocks.  We went to shore and as usual met some of the nicest folks.  We went to Yardies Restaurant but only had a soda while Rob walked to the ocean side.  A teenager in town said it was a half hour walk.  Speaking to Odelle (the proprietor of Yardies) she said it was an hour at least! Luckily I was able to get a ride back to the big boat with Terry & Jeanette and left the dink for Rob.  He came back about 3 hours later with bunches of beach treasure.  He had sea glass, sea beans as well as lots of floats.  If & when we ever stop cruising we will have one very nice tiki bar wherever we live!  We spent o couple of nights in Fernandez Bay and went over to Bennett’s Harbour as there is a front on the way with lots of westerly winds.  If you are not familiar with Cat Island suffice it to say that there is no protection from west winds. 

Our refrigeration has a bracket that broke while we were in the US.  We ordered another from Sea Frost & I picked it up while back in VA last October.  It has broken again!  There is definitely a problem here and we must address all of the issues when we get back to VA in the spring.  Now it appears that we will need to go to Long Island sooner rather than later to have another fabricated.  This one may be steel even though it will present the problem of dissimilar metals.  The joys of cruising & not being close to those you trust to work on your boat!

Whoops!  There will be fish tonight!  One took the lure away, one spit the hook & this last is IN DA BOAT!  He appears to be a 2 dinner fish of the yellowtail variety!  01/15/2015 @ 11:48am!

There is a Junior Junkanoo at New Bight just around the corner from where we are on Saturday night at 7pm.  We are going to try to make it because when you get the teenagers involved it is always energetic!

Later!